Free Slate! Kinsley 'Chickened Out' on Fee

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Free Slate! Kinsley 'Chickened Out' on Fee

Fulfilling analysts' expectations that a high-IQ, niche-oriented online magazine can't turn a buck, Microsoft's Slate said it's backed off from plans to begin charging US$19.95 for annual subscriptions and will remain free "for the indefinite future."

"To be honest, we chickened out," Slate editor Michael Kinsley wrote in his Readme column Friday. "Maybe in the future, when the Web is commonplace, people will happily pay for access to premium sites, as they pay now for HBO and other premium television channels." He added that people are either "too damned cheap" or "too engaged" to pay extra for specific content, with possible exceptions being pornography and financial data.

Despite the nudge-nudge tone of Kinsley's announcement, publisher Rogers Weed said the reality of the situation is that it wouldn't be good business for Slate to start shaking down readers for subscription fees. "It makes more sense to be free right now," he observed, saying the Web has not yet developed the "maturity" to handle charging for high-quality journalism.

"If you put two-thirds or three-quarters of your site behind a subscription wall, that would impact your ad revenue," Weed said. If Slate had more than 100,000 paying readers, loss of advertising might not be a big problem, he noted. But with approximately 35,000 readers at present, the site must be careful not to alienate its sole source of revenue.

"We will re-evaluate our decision about this on a regular basis," Weed said, adding that Slate will keep taking pulse readings to determine "the overall sense of the maturity of the platform."

Jonathan Geurkink, a research associate at brokerage Bear Stearns, said it was not surprising that Slate would shy away from charging for access. "The New York Times is also dragging its feet on charging for content," he pointed out. "Everyone on the Web is used to getting things for free. Otherwise, they go away."

Kinsley wrote that Bill Gates took news of the decision very badly: "'But you promised me $20 a reader,' he sobbed, borrowing a Kleenex from a nearby Nubian. 'You promised, you promised, you promised.'"

"Mike did not even talk to Bill about this," Weed clarified. "Mike has been poking fun at Bill since the first issue. This is a problem for me."

Based on the results of a recent readership survey, Weed said he is confident that Slate ultimately will find a sufficiently large, or generous, audience to begin charging subscription fees. "I say it's not in trouble," he insisted. "I see fairly high loyalty and fairly high satisfaction. We have to build on that."